Stars to Port
by Amanita Jackson
Summary: Woohoo, first Sparrington I've actually completed! Yay! Songfic, James is extremely irritated that Jack is so sexy and still such a brat to everyone. [heh....]


Slight spoilers for PotC2, but yeah. We've all seen it at least a half dzen times by now, right? Right. This will probably be part of a series cos...well, cos. Mneh. Just read.

DISCLAIMER: Disney owns them, although I'm proud of them for making Jamesie common. Now they need to read even MORE fics and get some serious, obvious, blatant Sparrington in the thrid movie. Song is Blue Monday by Orgy and it is a damn brilliant song. Catchy. I was humming it all whilst writing.

Yep, this thing is the spawn of late-night radio, extreme social frustration, and a little jar of Nutella. God, I love that stuff. First PotC fic, grant mercy when necessary.

* * *

Commodore Norrington stared out at the sea,

Well, technically, he wasn't exactly Commodore anymore.

James Norrington, then. No rank, no stature, no place. The list went on. No home, no money, no help, no hope…

It always came back to Sparrow. Sooner or later, all of James' problems came back to that thrice-damned Jack Captain-if-you-please Sparrow.

James, too, always came back to Sparrow.

_**How does it feel to treat me like you do?  
When you've laid your hands upon me  
And told me who you are  
I thought I was mistaken  
I thought I heard your words  
Tell me, how do I feel  
Tell me now, how do I feel  
How does it feel,**_

_**How should I feel?  
Tell me how does it feel?  
To treat me like you do  
**_

The very first time James met Jack…well, James didn't like to dwell on it. James had been young and foolish--well, younger and more foolish. Jack had turned up in Port Royal yet again just after James had been promoted and had actually allowed himself to get captured by James. True to form, it _was_ too good to be true. Jack's damn compass had shown him that Sparrow still had the upper hand. James had snapped it shut and made some stupid jibe, furious that after all Jack had done to him he was still strung along like a dog or a toy.

That very first time, James had refused to believe Jack was a pirate. Jack had waved away his concerns and informed him, amused, that young Norrington was not the first Navy man he'd slept with and wouldn't be the last, and to be a good boy and shut up now.

Every time he saw Sparrow, it seemed certain to be the last time. Jack had such an annoying habit of cheating. He cheated at cards, at dice, with women, with men, with Elizabeth, with William, with James, with life, with death…the list was endless. The man was absolutely infuriating! Yet everyone came back; no one could help it. James always came back to Sparrow, and Sparrow…

**_Those who came before me  
Lived through their vocations  
From the past until completion _**

**_They'll turn away no more  
And I still find it so hard  
To say what I need to say  
But I'm quite sure that you'll tell me  
Just how I should feel today _**

It had gotten to the point where James was so completely under Jack's thumb that Jack basically had control of James' men. James' social life, too, was Jack's puppet stage. Jack would tell James what he wanted and how James would get it, and James would. Sometimes, when he was touring the town, James would look out at people's faces and wonder who else was one of Jack's dolls as well.

Jack Sparrow was such a bloody _addiction_. Elizabeth Swann, James could see, had been hooked just by reading of the man, though she was fighting it admirably. Or so she thought. James had enough experience with Jack Sparrow's ways to see that she was doing precisely as Jack wished her to.

That boy, William Turner, was caught just as fast. In his heart of hearts, James had been jealous when the two had gone off to chase Elizabeth, leaving James behind in Port Royal.

But that was how Jack worked. You were coddled, you were special, you were _useful_ and then you were put back on the shelf until and unless you were needed again.

The most infuriating thing of all was that no one, not even once-Commodore Norrington, could ever, ever say no.

**_I see a ship in the harbour  
I can and shall obey  
But if it wasn't for your misfortunes  
I'd be a heavenly person today  
And I thought I was mistaken  
And I thought I heard you speak  
Tell me how do I feel  
Tell me now, how should I feel _**

Now, mused James as he tugged on the line, he was headed for Tortuga. Demoted, utterly cast out from society, and having to barter working passage on this awful, stinking, tiny American ship. Merchants, so they claimed, looking to sell their wares to the kind of men who wouldn't ask questions.

When Jack had escaped that hanging at Port Royal, everything had gone downhill. After the shock of having everything he'd worked for cruelly stripped from him, James had fled. He could _hear_ Jack's voice calling siren-like, luring him to Tortuga. Vile, rotting, stinking, putrid scum of a slumming underbelly as it was, James knew that sooner or later he'd find Jack.

It was at once very scary, unbelievably infuriating and incredibly comforting to know that he was playing directly into Jack's hands.

_**Now I stand here waiting...  
**_

And find Jack he did. James was drunk, and when James was drunk James was belligerent. He _thought_ he started a fight, but he couldn't really remember too much. He remembered that someone had been sitting next to Jack, and _rage_, and…something about pigs.

The next thing he knew, James was aboard the Pearl with a massive hangover and was being ignored in favour of the lovely Elizabeth.

It wasn't _fair_. James had been waiting _ages_ for Jack, and Elizabeth waltzed in and James had to watch two of the three people he loved most with each other.

But James had been with Jack _first_…

**_I thought I told you to leave me  
While I walked down to the beach  
Tell me how does it feel  
When your heart grows cold  
_**

James _had_ him at sword point, no pun intended. He had been prepared to run Jack through and put an end to his own misery. Then Jack had to ask that _cruel_ question about his life being ruined.

When he couldn't have Jack, who was the drunken boy, barely of age, that Jack _did_ have?

When he decided to settle for Elizabeth, quite a charming girl and who he really did like a great deal if he didn't love her, who else stole her heart?

Who continued to take everything away, especially Jack?

Who broke James' battered heart when they turned to each other in Jack's absence?

Well, really, it was entirely Jack's fault that everything bad had happened to James, but Will had exacerbated it.

And really, now that he'd hesitated, James would rather not kill Jack. Well, he did, but he didn't, but he did…

In a moment of stunning clarity, James saw at once both the appeal of the undead monkey thing and why Davy Jones had put his heart away to keep the terrible hurt at bay.

When they'd all ended up on the beach fighting with those creatures, James saw his chance. He stole Davy Jones' heart from the jar of dirt quicker than Jack had stolen his those years ago.

He shouted some nonsense about being a distraction, grabbed the empty chest, and ran for it.

The ruse worked, and James bargained passage on a ship. He had the heart, and Jack was safe and would probably die. He was going home, and Jack was safe and would probably die.

He was away from Jack, and Jack was safe and would probably die. Was almost certainly dead by the time James reached Port Royal, what with that awful Kraken following him.

So why did James feel like Jack was following him, like this was all part of Jack's grand design?

**_How does it feel?_**

_**How should I feel?  
Tell me how does it feel?  
To treat me like you do?  
How does it feel?**_

_**How should I feel?  
Tell me how does it feel?  
To treat me like you do?  
How does it feel?**_

**_How should I feel?_**  
**_Tell me how does it feel?  
To treat me like you do?_**


End file.
